T*Witches: Building a Mystery

by Randi Reisfeld

  Cam's cutie-pie brother had decided to have his long blond locks chopped—and streaked blue—like Alex's. Which had put Cam's mother Emily into orbit.

  Emily had glared daggers at Alex all through dinner.

  "Come on, let's review," Cam said now, as they turned onto the school's wide central walkway. She pointed discreetly. "They're all over there."

  Alex groaned, but complied. "Okay, so the curvy, cocoa-skinned blond in the granny glasses is Sukari. Black-haired, slightly edgy, that's Kristen. Kristen Hsu, right? And the pale redhead in hippie-dippy retro wear is Amanda. Beth is Beth. And... whoa! That's gotta be Bree. She looks exactly like her voice—all tight and screechy!"

  There was something about the short, skinny girl—from the blond streaks in her expertly highlighted hair to the oh-so-cool perfection of her platform slides—that hit Alex like nails on a blackboard. Lucinda and Evan had an expression for the type. "T-cubed." Too. Totally. Trendy.

  Brianna was waiting for them, Kristen at her side, at the arched front entrance to the school. "Wait. Don't tell me," the petite girl drawled, extending a tennis-bracelet-bedecked arm. "You must be Alexandra." She peered over her sunglasses and looked Alex up and down like a pint-sized inspector grading meat. "You look exactly like—"

  "Cam?" Beth prompted facetiously.

  "Excuse me?" Brianna raised an eyebrow at Cam's tall, frizzy-haired best. "Did I call for a ventriloquist? I move my mouth, and you do the talking? I don't think so."

  "Dag," Sukari laughed. "She dissed your butt, Beth."

  "I was going to say," Bree finished, pointedly ignoring Sukari, "that you look exactly like Kristen described you."

  "Oh, really? And how's that?" Cam asked, flashing a warning glare at Brianna.

  "Indescribably weird!" Bree answered, offering her palm to Kristen for a high five.

  Cam glanced quickly at Alex. No words, spoken or unspoken, were necessary for her to read her twin's intentions. Alex's gray eyes had flicked to the freshly hosed bottom of the archway, specifically to the shallow puddle of water coating the marble slab on which Bree stood. No, Cam thought. Oh, Alex, don't!

  I'm cool, her grinning twin silently assured her. And actually, Alex's eyes were cool, furiously frosty, as she watched Bree skid suddenly on a glass-smooth slick of ice that had somehow formed beneath her feet.

  Bree teetered and twirled, reaching out for balance.

  Kristen ducked, trying to get out of her way, but Bree's flailing hand caught her and sent her crashing back against one of the great oak doors thrown open to welcome Marble Bay High students. Kristen slid to the ground, the door at her back, her long legs splayed before her.

  Stop it! Cam silently scolded Alex.

  Oh, all right, her twin groused. A nanosecond later, Bree flopped down, hitting the ice-coated marble with a resounding thwack.

  Cam and Beth helped her to her feet, while Amanda and Sukari, both giggling, hoisted Kris.

  "Nothing bruised but my pride," Brianna assured everyone, dusting off her skirt. She glanced at Alex, studied her suspiciously for a second, then shrugged and announced, "However, a lawsuit against the school is not out of the question."

  Ten minutes later, they were all inside by the tenth-grade lockers. While Cam and company caught up with school friends, Alex fiddled with the lock Emily had given her. She was trying to remember the combination; she had the first two turns down, but wasn't sure of the third.

  A pleasant scent of soap and leather muddled her thinking. Before she could trace it, a hoarse voice offered, "I can open it for you, if you've lost the combo."

  Alex looked up into the cool blue eyes of the leather-jacketed boy she'd seen walking past the pizza shop.

  "That's okay. I know the combination." Suddenly Dylan was at her side. "You're new around here, right? I'm Dylan Barnes."

  "Yeah, we moved here in July. Cade Richman," the boy introduced himself. He looked from Dylan back to Alex, taking in their blue streaks and look-alike haircuts. "Oh, are you two...?"

  "Oh, no. Definitely not. He's my brother," Alex explained. "Actually, he's not even my brother, he's my sister's brother. I'm Alex Fielding." Cade was staring at her, bewildered but amused. Alex laughed. "It's a long story."

  He scratched his head, his hair a tumble of ink-dark curls. "Sounds complicated," he said with a crooked smile. "Okay, well, nice meting you guys."

  "I'm new, too," Alex called after him.

  "Cool." He waved. "Catch you at orientation."

  She looked up. Six faces, mouths open, eyes wide, were staring at her.

  "Who was that?" Beth was the first to cross the hall.

  "His name's Cade—" Dylan started to answer.

  Kristen brushed away his attempt. "Cade Richman. Rumors are already flying. Got kicked out of some other school and dumped here. He's trouble."

  "I never saw him before and hope never to again," Brianna insisted. "Coffee, chocolate, boys—some things are just better rich. I mean, torn jeans, that cruddy leather jacket, and those mountain-man boots? Not my type."

  "Mmm," Sukari countered. "Tall, tasty, and intense—he's mine."

  "Only it's Alex who cast a spell over him," Amanda teased.

  Alex locked eyes with the feather-earringed redhead.

  "Don't mind 'Manda," Sukari told her. "She's, like, all into chanting, scented candles, and simmering herbs. She's our local witch."

  "Right. When Camryn isn't doing her mojo thing," Beth added, grinning at her best. Cam's mojo was what the Six Pack called the uncanny vibes, hunches, and premonitions their bud was known for. Until last season's championship match. When the soccer ace had suddenly suffered a space-out in the final moments of the Marble Bay Meteors' most important game.

  "Oh, you mean like during... soccer play-offs?" Bree purred innocently.

  Amanda gasped.

  "Put a sock in it, Bree," Sukari ordered.

  "Or what?" Bree laughed. "Gonna get 'Manda to put a hex on me?"

  Beth and Kristen apprehensively watched Cam, who seemed unaware of the rumpus around her. "Did you see his boots, Als?" she murmured. "He was wearing boots."

  Alex looked down the hall again. Cade was leaning against another bank of lockers, looking, as Sukari had put it, tasty and intense. And, no, she hadn't noticed before, but he was wearing boots, scuffed black motorcycle boots.

  Alex forced herself to laugh. "Sure, like a gazillion other guys in the world," she told Cam. "That doesn't make him... you know, bad to the bone."

  But she'd picked up on Cam's train of thought: The killer, the big, bearded bozo they'd been warned about, wore boots, heavy clunky boots, even in the sweltering summer.

  So did that mean whoever he sent to snag them would share his fondness for funky footwear? No way, Alex decided, determined to get inside Cade's head, to prove Cam wrong.

  But she couldn't. The buff boy's mind was murky and shut down. There was something stirring there in the dark, a devastating secret, which Alex couldn't decode. She couldn't read it, she realized, because Cade refused to think about it. He was hiding something, not just from her, but from himself.

  Cam was on a similar mission. Cade was a stranger. Only Kristen seemed to know something about him—and that wasn't much. Except he was clearly someone Alex was attracted to, and his boots had reminded Cam of the scary guy they'd met the night Ileana and Officer Karsh had rescued them.

  Was Cade the murderer's messenger?

  Cam's sight grew hazy. The hall chaos faded as a pounding in her ears got louder. She trembled, though she knew what was happening. It had happened before she'd met Alex, but never with the intensity she'd experienced since.

  She was about to see or know something that she couldn't possibly see or know.

  Cam's stomach knotted. Then…

  There was a blur of red metal. Headlights speeding toward her. A car hurtling along a narrow road. High-pitched voices, screaming... laughing.

  A hand grabbed hers. Cam gasped, but forced her eyes open. "Did you see i
t?" she whispered to Alex, who was holding on to her.

  "No," her sister answered softly, truthfully. "I tried, but I couldn't see anything."

  Chapter 5 – A Clash in the Corridor

  "You guys," Brianna called impatiently, "we're going to the lunchroom. Are you coming?"

  "In a minute," Alex said. The hallway was becoming more crowded. "You look terrible," she whispered to Cam.

  "It's not my fault we're identical," Cam answered with a weak grin. "We'll meet you downstairs," she told her waiting friends.

  "Whatever." Beth sounded annoyed.

  A couple of Dylan's friends passed. "Later," he said, taking off after them as the rest of the Six Pack joined the flow of students heading for the cafeteria.

  "I saw something" Cam confided as soon as they were out of sight. "But I have no idea what it meant or whether it had anything to do with the warning we got." Wiped out, she leaned back against the wall.

  "It's okay. Just breathe," Alex advised. "We can figure it out later."

  Kids streamed by, sharing summer stories, comparing homeroom assignments and class schedules. Here and there small groups gathered, causing jams that slowed the flow.

  A series of cries—"Hey, watch it!" "Look out!" "Yo, chill, bro!"—followed one boy's path. He was large, with small, mean eyes and a bristly shaved head. Behind him a zoo of jocks followed, egging him on.

  "Who is that?" Alex asked as the broad-chested guy elbowed through the crowd. "The dude's neck is bigger than my waist."

  "Eddie Robins," Cam answered. "He's on the football team. He's kind of a jerk."

  "Whoa," Alex teased. "He must really be evil for you to say that. I mean, you're so the un-Bree."

  Then, a grinning Eddie viciously shouldered a mousy girl in thick glasses who was half his size.

  "Evil enough?" Cam asked. The blow sent the elfin girl reeling. Kids jumped out of the way, gasped, shrank back, trying not to trample her, while Eddie's drooling gorillas hooted and elbowed one another. The heavy books the girl had been cradling flew out of her hands and skittered along the floor; her cheery red purse fell, too, bursting open on impact an sending its contents clattering every which way.

  In the pandemonium, Eddie swooped down. "Let me give you a hand," he snickered, snatching the girl's bright plastic billfold. "Let's see, any ID in here?"

  Is he actually going to take her money? Alex wondered, outraged.

  Right here in broad daylight, Cam thought, starting to boil. In the middle of the hall with...

  Everyone just standing around watching! Alex couldn't believe it.

  The girl was on her knees, gathering up her books. On her skinny wrist she wore a man-sized watch; its band was inches too big for her. She was shaking.

  As if in sympathy, Alex began to tremble, too. An icy wave of anger, she guessed, swept through her, setting her teeth chattering.

  Some kids had knelt to help retrieve the frail girl's books and purse. A few reached out to the waif, but Eddie's pals jeered at them, and the victim's head was down. She either didn't see the decent kids or, too embarrassed, simply ignored their hands. But no one would go near Eddie, who was rifling through her wallet. He pulled out a bus pass. "Madison Knudnick," he read.

  "What's the matter, Edgar, your old man dock your allowance again?" someone in the crowd called out in a soft, sandpapery voice that Alex recognized.

  "It's Cade," she breathed.

  The bully looked up, his eyes narrowed at the new boy, but he signaled his troops to cool out. "Yo, Richie Rich Boy. You think my old man's like yours? Mine don't make the big bucks—"

  "They know each other," Cam realized.

  "Are you angry enough to scorch that skank Eddie?" Alex asked her. "Give him a hot flash? Or do you need a little help?"

  "Right here, you want me to do it? In front of half the school?"

  "I thought maybe you could be subtle about it," Alex hissed.

  Cade was moving through the crowd, trying to get near Eddie.

  "Go, girl," Alex urged Cam. "Or are you waiting for me to ice the hallway?"

  "Could you?" Cam pleaded.

  "Do your best. Or your worst." Alex squeezed her twin's hand. "Barbecue bully-boy."

  Camryn closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, focusing full-out on Eddie Robins. Her eyes began to sting; her face grew flushed; her hand gripped Alex's so hard that Alex let out a yelp of pain.

  The girl on the floor heard it and glanced up. She blew a strand of limp brown hair from her forehead. She had a long nose and thin lips, which curled suddenly in a strange smile. Her sad, dark eyes widened at the sight of the twins as if she recognized them.

  The sound of Eddie's breathing, shallow and fast now, almost as if he were panting, made Alex turn away from Madison. Eddie had started to blink rapidly. His face and fleshy neck began to sweat. Loosening his T-shirt collar and mopping his forehead, he searched the crowd, looked up toward the heat vents, wondering what was going on.

  Just as Cade broke through the circle of kids surrounding the bully, Cam focused and a searing blast of fiery air brought Eddie to his knees. He covered his eyes and screamed, "What'd you do to me, Richman? I'm blind. I can't see. My eyes are burning. I'll get you for this!"

  "Man, j'ya see that?" some of the startled jocks were grumbling. "Yo, what'd ya do to him?" A few moved menacingly in Cade's direction, but Eddie hollered, "Gimme a hand here!" and they backed off quickly.

  After pulling Madison to her feet, Cade picked up the wallet Eddie had dropped and returned it to the petite girl.

  People started pressing forward, slapping his back, trying to shake his hand, shouting, "Whew, that was ultimate cool, man," and "How'd you do that?"

  Cade looked around, over the heads of the kids encircling him. Catching Alex's eye, he shrugged and smiled at her, as if to say, I don't know what's going on here, honest, then turned away.

  Madison ran right past him, moving straight for Cam and Alex. Her squeaky voice added to her mousy aspect. "You're the ones who rescued Marleigh Cooper!"

  It was true, but hardly anyone knew it.

  Weeks ago, America's pop princess had been kidnapped. Cam and Alex had used their budding powers to find the teen singing sensation and win her release.

  Thanks to Camryn's dad, David Barnes—your basic one-in-a-million, good-guy lawyer—their names had not been leaked to the press. Dave wouldn't allow them to be photographed or give interviews. So, as far as most people were concerned, a pair of gutsy teenage girls who preferred to remain anonymous had saved Cooper.

  How did this newcomer know about their role in Marleigh's rescue?

  "Oh, wow," the hyper girl continued. "How neat. I'm Madison. I'm new here. And sooo lost. But big-time. Gosh, you're both sooo pretty. Imagine that. Like, brave and beautiful. It's not fair. Just kidding. I've got orientation first period and I don't even know where the auditorium is—"

  What's that face for? Alex silently asked Cam, who was looking at Madison as if the girl really were a small rodent or bothersome bug.

  Cam rubbed her forehead. It's just, I'm... Don't mind me, Als, I have a killer headache. I'm not thinking straight.

  A couple of Eddie's pals had him on his feet again. Angrily, he shook off their hands. Just before he lumbered down the hall, he glanced over his shoulder.

  I'll get you! Alex heard him thinking. It wasn't hard to read his mind; he was staring directly at them.

  "I don't guess you guys could, like, take me there?" Madison was saying. She nibbled her words fast and furiously, like a mouse eating cheese. "I'm just kinda nervous. You know, 'cause of what just went down."

  "No big," Alex said. "I'm going there, too. It's just down those stairs, I think." She turned to Cam for confirmation.

  Cam nodded. "First floor, south."

  "Catch ya later," Alex said.

  Madison grinned hugely. "You guys are so stellar. I can't believe it. My first day of school and I get to meet the two coolest girls in Marble Bay. Wow."

&nbs
p; Cam watched them making their way down the hall. Something about the fragile girl disturbed her, something other than her smallness, manic chatter, and cheerful neediness. But Cam's eyes still stung and her head ached and she couldn't put her finger on what it was exactly that troubled her about Madison Knudnick.

  Chapter 6 – A Grievous Error

  A note from Lady Rhianna, head of the Unity Council, Coventry Island's high court, awaited Ileana on her return.